USC Vs NYU (Business)

themegastud
Fri, 13 May 2005 06:16:08 +0000

I think it would come down to where the OP wanted to work. NYU, while not having as strong of a supportive alumni network at USC (few schools do… Notre Dame perhaps), will likely get her farther in NYC for obvious reasons, as well as in any position involving finance. Assuming if she wanted to work at home which was mentioned, it should be noted that Hong Kong has a very active and prominent USC alumni chapter there and flashing the class ring might get her foot in a few more doors than NYU would.

One sad reality is that the “it’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know” expression often holds true.

Maggie, to answer your question about undergrad institution affecting grad institution, the answer is “yes… to a degree.” Assuming we’re talking about business schools, since it’s extremely rare to go straight from undergrad into an MBA program, it matters much less compared to most other graduate programs. In this instance, B-schools look at work experience, GMAT scores, and GPA among other variables, with the school taken into consideration. Clearly a 3.8 from Berkeley is more significant than a 3.8 from many other institutions. This is not to say though that one can’t go to a non Tier 1 school and not make it into a top business school. I know of someone who apparently racked up such weighty work experience after graduating from SDSU that Wharton accepted him. As far as Marshall vs. Stern in the eyes of MBA Admissions is concerned, I would imagine they would be about equal, unless perhaps your Stern degree was in finance. But once again, they’ll mostly be looking at other things.